Currently, people may donate goods or services to charities, however, traditional donations have been monetary distributions via a credit or debit card, cash or check. People may donate online, by phone, or by mail, and may also elect to have a certain amount deducted from their salary, checking account, or credit or debit cards at preset intervals. Alternatively, in lieu of obtaining frequent flier miles or other benefits, people might elect to use a store card, whereby a specific charity receives a monetary percentage for each purchase made by the person with the card, whereby the person foregoes the benefits received in miles or other rewards. In this case, the donation is made by the card company to the charity. In addition, if the person wishes to make donations to multiple charities, they would be required to use multiple cards, with each card tied to a specific charity.
There are many websites that make contributions to various charities by donating a percentage of the proceeds from purchased goods to either a charity selected by the vendor of the website, or by allowing a credit or debit card user to select one of several charities for donations to be made based upon their purchases. Further, some websites ask purchasers if they would like to make a donation to a particular charity for a preset amount. In these instances, the purchaser cannot dictate the terms of the charitable donations nor the charity to receive these donations.
Further, existing contribution programs that donate to non-profits as a percentage of a monetary transaction are often governed by rigid terms. These terms are often dictated by the issuer of the card, or by the participating merchant. Some are tied to one merchant, as a loyalty card, and usually allow donations to a single non-profit. For example, Kroger's Neighbor-to-Neighbor program allows a single non-profit to receive a percentage of a fixed sum based on sales transactions by a user. Still, others such as branded credit cards allow one to donate all transactions for the card to a single non-profit, such as a higher education organization, for example. In every case, the donation terms are largely dictated to the cardholder, rather than the reverse.
There is therefore a need for a system and method that overcomes some or all of the previously delineated drawbacks of prior loyalty programs, which provide for a loyalty program having customizable rules that incorporate the preferences of merchants, charities, individuals, or groups. There is also a need for a loyalty program that provides a system and method for dynamically determining the rules for distributing benefits to non-profits, as well as customizable rules that identify the events that trigger the gift-giving to at least one entity in the loyalty program.